Ken Livingstone has provoked fresh controversy, after telling an audience: “Hang a banker a week until the others improve.” … A spokesperson for Livingstone insisted it was simply a joke. Livingstone made his comments a week after stating in an interview that a gay banker would not be enticed to leave London to work in Dubai because he could “get his penis cut off”, as he highlighted the English capital as a key financial centre. In a similar vein, he told the Guardian in a recent interview that City workers favour London over other capital cities as a place to work because “young men want to go out on the pull and do a lot of cocaine, and they can’t really do that easily in Frankfurt”. [Guardian, related]
London
Alternatively, things are looking up for those hoping to romance an Olympic synchronized swimmer. Continue reading »
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Posted in:
Love
JPMorgan Analyst Strangely Impervious To Married Ex-Boyfriend / Colleague’s Romantic Gestures
By Bess Levin
Time was, Daniela Rausnitz and David Gray had something special. Following a summer of flirtation across cubicles- Daniela was an intern at JPMorgan, David a “high-flying” third year analyst- the two got together after Daniela graduated from Duke and their relationship was “cemented” when David consoled her over being “sexually harassed by a senior member of the bank.” Things were said to have gotten so serious that David, a Cornell ’04 graduate, even entertained the idea of leaving his wife. Unfortunately, things hit a rough patch after Daniela transferred to JPMorgan’s London office and Big D began “stifling” her. Consequently, Daniela decided to pump the brakes and end things. Still Married David, however, knew better. These two, Daniela and Dave, were meant to be together. Meant for each other. So he did what any other romantic in his shoes would do, and waged a campaign to get her back. Said campaign included the following moves:
* Sending her 176 text messages and 23 emails over just 16 hours
* Using his old key to get into her apartment
* Claiming “he was critically ill in a desperate effort to attract her attention.”
* Hacking her email
* Planting “a tracking device in her phone”
At this point, there’s a chance Gray stepped back and asked himself, “Is it possible I’m coming on too strong”? A silly question, obviously, as he already knew the answer, which was: “No, no strong enough.” So he doubled down on Operation You’re The One For Me. Continue reading »
Occupy Wall Street: London Takes Page From Mayor Bloomberg’s Playabook, Sans Billy Clubs, Book Burning, NYPD Bedside Manner
By Bess LevinThe City of London Corporation, which oversees the U.K.’s main financial district, issued eviction notices to anti-capitalist protesters camped outside St. Paul’s Cathedral. The City authorities served a legal notice demanding the protesters move their tents and equipment away from the public highway within 24 hours, John Park, a corporation spokesman, said in an e-mail today. The move followed a decision yesterday to clear demonstrators from the area, he said. “We are getting reports about vulnerable people, cases of late-night drinking and other worrying trends, so it’s time to act,” the corporation’s policy chairman, Stuart Fraser, said in an e-mailed statement yesterday, “From now on, we will have to have any talks in parallel with court action — not instead.” If protesters do not comply with the eviction order, proceedings will be issued in the High Court, he said. [Bloomberg]
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Posted in:
bonuses
Bonus Watch ’11: Kweku Adoboli Apparently To Blame For All Crappy Bonuses In London This Year
By Bess Levin
Not just at UBS. Continue reading »
Goldman Sachs International has triggered a clause inserted into the employment contracts of a group of its London-based investment bankers in mid-2009 that will result in them having to take a pay cut, Financial News has learned. A number of staff across the investment bank’s European division, which is based in London, have been told this summer that their base salaries will be cut, a source with knowledge of the situation told Financial News. [FN/WSJ]
Until recently, when a London-based financial services employee got off work and had a special kind of hankering to get off with multiple ladies while taking in some well-known monuments like Big Ben, he need look no further than Whites Gentlemen’s Club. Apparently WGC offered “chauffeured sight-seeing tours around London’s top attractions [and] offered full sex with two busty hookers and champagne while on board,” for the price of £850/hour. Well no longer. After a sting operation that for some reason took two months, the authorities have shut the business down. Continue reading »
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